First of all, telnet is Bad since it is unencrypted and anyone can sniff your passwords and everything you do. I recommend SSH instead.

First you enable telnet on the server computer. On Windows it is a service to install/enable. On unixoid systems you have to enable it in either inetd or xinetd.

If you have a firewall then you have to enable connections to port 23 on the server side.

Telnet uses the users and passwords on its host computer. So if you telnet to a system then you just enter a user and a password on that target system as prompted. Usually you cannot login as the root user via telnet by default.

Thanks for the info. My operating system is Windows XP. WHen i click Start then Run, then i type in telnet then an IP Address, then it opens, but it will say connecting, then it exit's telnet?? Whats wrong? How can i connect to my School's IP Address?